Authorities say the wife of Trayvon Martin’s shooter is being accused of lying to a judge about their finances during his bond hearing and faces one count of perjury.

An order issued Tuesday by assistant state attorney John Guy charged Shellie Zimmerman for knowingly making false statements during the April hearing. George Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting. He was granted $150,000 bond at that hearing and released.

The judge revoked that bond earlier this month after state attorneys argued that both Zimmerman and his wife had lied to the judge about their finances, especially about money raised from a website.

Small Government is corrupt government. One of the reasons conservatives so love that small government is the opportunity it provides for corruption.

Washington, DC’s city government has a long history and culture of corruption. Many of the black contractors in the region won’t even consider making sales calls on the DC Government because of internal corruption.

From former Mayor Marion Berry to the current Kwame, this corruption has reached into the highest levels of the DC Government, forming a virtual boat anchor around the necks of the citizenry and the city’s ability to provide services.

The amazing part is that the stakes in the corruption, unlike other big cities – are so small. I’m not real sure this is the type of case Federal prosecutors ought to be chasing, though – as there seems to me to be a lot bigger fish to fry than some moron lying about his income on a loan application. Going after Kwame on this is a bit…

Overboard.

Speaking of boat anchors – Borrowing $50k for a 38′ boat? Obviously he was maxxed out on his Mercedes payment (Kwame had a reputation for driving expensive cars). If he had to borrow $50k for that size boat – he couldn’t afford it anyway. Boats in that size come with 300-600 gallon gas tanks – meaning a fill up for half a tank, which is where most prudent boaters fill – is $750 – $1,500. That doesn’t count $2-3000 a year in slip fees, $1,500 in winterization costs, and normal repairs and maintenance…

It had to be a used boat, because the last time I went to the Annapolis Boar Show, you couldn’t buy the steering wheel on a quality boat in that class for $50k. And I have known guys who spent that much on the electronics package and fishing gear on their boats.

And with the mortgage industry fraud and theft by bank of depositor funds though overdraft and other manipulated fees…

I’m not sure Kwame’s crime rises above theft of stolen money from a thief who stole the money in the first place.

Not to excuse Kwame – But…

I Don’t understand why these prosecutors aren’t putting the real thieves in jail.

“Because of the great respect that I have for the institution that is the Council of the District of Columbia, I have chosen the only honorable course in submitting my resignation at this time,” Brown wrote in a letter to the council secretary. “I simply will not hold this body, and its important work hostage to the resolution of my personal indiscretions.”

Earlier in the day, prosecutors filed a three-page charging document in the District’s federal court accusing Brown (D) of falsifying records in applications to obtain a home loan and to buy a $50,000 powerboat. Brown inflated his income by “tens of thousands of dollars” in the two-year scheme that started in August 2005, federal prosecutors wrote.

Brown, dogged for months by an investigation into his personal finances and his 2008 campaign for a council seat, is scheduled to attend a plea hearing Friday before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon. Bank fraud carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, but under federal sentencing guidelines, Brown will face far less potential punishment.

The disclosure of the charges set off a frenzy of activity at the District’s John A. Wilson Building, including a hastily scheduled closed-door council meeting in Brown’s office.

Brown, 41, submitted his resignation quietly, in a letter delivered privately. He refused to address a platoon of reporters as he left his council offices about 4 p.m.

A politician who speaks of himself in the third person, has compared himself to President John F. Kennedy and has a love affair with expensive cars, Brown flashed a large grin as he shoved his way through the scrum and tried to ignore reporters’ shouted questions.

“I will have a comment tomorrow,” said Brown, who as recently as last week said that he was not “worried one bit” about an intensifying federal probe into his finances and a previous city campaign.

The charges against Brown came in a “criminal information,” a document that can be filed only with the defendant’s consent and which signals that a plea deal has been reached. Officials familiar with the case said that prosecutors and Brown’s attorney have been discussing the plea deal for weeks.

“Thank you,” he told reporters as he tried to get to his car. “No comment as of now. I appreciate you for waiting in this hallway all this time. I don’t have a comment.”

On Wednesday night, well after Brown had left the Wilson Building, city workers removed his nameplate from his office door, leaving only the word “Chairman” near Room 504…

Brown is the second council member this year to be charged with a federal crime. Last month, former council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D) was sentenced to 38 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $350,000 from city taxpayers.

Florida State Attorney Angela Corey will hold a 6 p.m. ET news conference today to “release new information” about the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The Associated Press is reporting that she will announce charges against George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer who has claimed he shot the 17-year-old in self-defense Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla.

The unidentified law enforcement source who spoke to the AP did not know the exact charge or charges that Corey is expected to announce at the state attorney’s office in Jacksonville. Zimmerman is also expected to be arrested soon, the AP said.

Zimmerman has been in hiding and not spoken publicly since the shooting. Tuesday, two attorneys withdrew as his counsel after they learned he had contacted Corey’s office and news media without their knowledge. They said they had lost contact with him Sunday.

Monday, Zimmerman launched a website to collect donations he said would be used “only for living expenses and legal defense.”

Two more NOLA Police Officers have been indicted in the beating death of a man 2 months after Katrina. It now appears that the NOLA PD was massively corrupt, and likely corrupt far before Katrina.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, videos caught this 64 year old retired elementary school teacher being beaten by NOLA Police for no apparent reason. This was a harbinger of the behavior of far too many of the NOLA Police, and quite possibly was "business as usual".

Two officers in the troubled New Orleans Police Department have been indicted in connection with the beating death of a civilian in 2005, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The federal indictment alleges that Officer Melvin Williams kicked the victim and struck him with a baton, fracturing his ribs and rupturing his spleen. The victim, Raymond Robair, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Williams and Officer Matthew Moore were also charged with obstructing justice when they submitted a false incident report and failed to tell hospital personnel Williams had beaten Robair, according to the indictment in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Details of the indictment were released by the U.S. Justice Department in Washington.

Moore also allegedly lied about the incident in an FBI investigation in March of this year according to the indictment. Moore is accused of telling federal agents Williams had not kicked or beaten Robair. Continue reading →

Kwame Kilpatrick illegally used the nonprofit Kilpatrick Civic Fund like a piggy bank to pay for crisis consultants, a Cadillac, trips — even summer camp for his kids — a federal grand jury said Wednesday, charging the former mayor with 19 counts of fraud and tax evasion.

The indictment comes seven years after Internal Revenue Service and FBI agents began looking into the fund in the wake of a Free Press report that a homeless shelter operator gave the fund $50,000 during Kilpatrick’s first run for mayor in 2001. The newspaper reported that Kilpatrick then wrote a letter recommending the shelter receive a multimillion-dollar public contract.

Despite Kilpatrick’s repeated claims to the contrary, the indictment says he used fund money for campaign and personal expenses, ranging from polling to yoga and golf lessons to college tuition for relatives.

Prosecutors contend he failed to report more than $640,000 in taxable income while mayor that he received in the form of cash, flights on private jets and perks paid for out of the civic fund.

“This indictment sends a clear message that those who make up their own rules based on fraud and deceit will be prosecuted,” said Maurice Aouate, head of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Detroit.

The indictment did not include public corruption charges, a point Kilpatrick spokesman Mike Paul seized upon.

He called speculation that the former mayor was involved in bribery schemes “lies from the pit of hell!”

“The FBI found nothing remotely close to that in their investigation because it never happened! This investigation puts an end to the ridiculous rumors that the mayor was personally involved with corruption, payoffs and bribes.”

Two questions behind this prosecution -

1) Why aren’t the Feds convicting Republican David Vitter for “Ho’ Fraud” – using federal money to pay for prostitutes? Or whatever happened to the criminal prosecution of Tom Delay?

2) What do you award a guy who already has an Orange Jumpsuit with his name on it?

The First Ever, BTx3 Orange Bootie Award to match that Orange Jumpsuit! With the Very Masculine Harley-Davison Logo... So the other Prisoners don't get the wrong idea!

During the Bushit Administration, private armies were encouraged, financed, and developed ostensibly to free up US troops to focus on combat operations. The largest of these companies was Blackwater, which is now operating under the name Xe. Blackwater was just one of several dozen companies which “magically” appeared and were granted no-bid contracts in the billions of dollars making instant millionaires out of people with the right connections to the Bushit Junta.

The first public hint that these private armies weren’t quite on the up and up came early as part of the Abu Garib torture scandal, where it was revealed that a number of the contractors hired by several of these companies included former member of the South Africa Apartheid regime’s special police who had tortured and murdered members of the ANC and South African freedom protesters. At least some of these private contractors were being used in “Rendition” projects, AND – not being subject to the Military’s legal restrictions, the torture of prisoners. These contractors operated as Dick Cheney’s private Army – a quasi legal military organization not bound by the Geneva Conventions.

One of the most visible of these companies was Blackwater, founded by Erik Prince. Erik Prince is the son of Edgar and Elsa Prince and is the brother of Betsy DeVos. Betsy has claimed – Continue reading →

Now – if she wins one of the top 10 spots in the general election, Nov 4th – she cannot hold office by law. As such, the City would have to conduct a special election for a vacant seat in the Spring. This is bad news for Detroit, in that if such should come to be – they would have to pay tens of thousands to conduct the election.